Hi Horace,

On Wed, 2016-08-24 at 21:38 +0300, Horace Michael wrote:
> Hi all,
> After several tests (using a normal PC but also a SBC with no
> videocard -
> APU1C2 from PCEngines) on installing IPFIre over PXE I’ve ended up
> several
> possible faults that lead to PXE not working:
> 
> Point A.
> pxelinux.0 points to a wrong server: server returns "502 Bad Gateway"

I have seen that bug before but couldn't find where that URL was in the
short time that I had available.

But I found it now and fixed it :)

http://git.ipfire.org/?p=ipfire.org.git;a=commitdiff;h=e7c9ed3cc22f028750a6433a830eab585b9c32fc

> Here are the outputs:
> 
> 
> TFTP prefix: http://boot.dev.ipfire.org/ 
> Unable to locate configuration file
> 
> Boot failed: press a key to retry, or wait for reset...
> .........
> 
> 
> Point B.
> Premenu.cfg loaded by menu.gpxe (http://boot.ipfire.org/menu.gpxe ) 
> has
> default menu the vesa menu and the submenu that should allow me to
> select
> between vesa and text are declared hidden. Therefore I can't select
> the text
> interface when I am booting from an SBC without video card - only
> option
> being the serial console = text menu - menu.c32. 
> 
> Extract from premenu.cfg:
> 
> menu hidden
> timeout 30
> 
> menu title Select menu type
> menu autoboot Press any key for options or wait # second{,s}...
> 
> label vesa
>   menu default
>   text help
>   The default graphical boot menu.
>   endtext
>   menu label Graphical menu
>   kernel vesamenu.c32
>   append menu.cfg?arch=i586&platform=pcbios
> 
> label text
>   menu label Text menu
>   text help
>   Use this menu if the graphical menu does not work on your system.
>   endtext
>   kernel menu.c32
>   append menu.cfg?arch=i586&platform=pcbios

Actually the BIOS should tell the menu that it doesn't support graphics
AFAIK.

> 
> Point C.
> Old .kpxe files from v1.0 folder
> (http://mirror0.ipfire.org/releases/ipfire-boot/v1.0/) don’t
> duplicate the
> characters on screen while the other .kpxe files (including the ones
> from
> latest - http://mirror0.ipfire.org/releases/ipfire-boot/latest/ -
> generate
> duplicate characters after loading the .kpxe and download from
> boot.ipfire.org starts.
> 

We discovered that this is a bug of the BIOS of the APU.

On other systems that worked fine.

I think by now this could be a little outdated. If you need sources for
our changes and want to update the loader, please have a look here:

http://git.ipfire.org/?p=oddments/ipfire-netboot.git;a=summary

Patches are always welcome :)

> Printscreens and additional details on forum:
> http://forum.ipfire.org/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=15250#p100110
> 
> 
> 
> Best regards,
> Horace 

Best,
-Michael